Favorites

This week's favorites...

Favorite Work Moment: The school that we work at has a tradition of "booing" one another around Halloween time. We've seen signs all over the campus that say, "You've been boo'd." Teachers leave little treats for one another and then it's their turn to "boo" someone else. We didn't want to feel left out of the festivities so the 6 of us have been "booing" each other all week. We boo each others' desks and then act super surprised as if we have no clue who it could be from. Never a dull day in room P-1, I tell ya. I LOVE every minute of it. 

Favorite Food Outing: Con Pane! Need I say more? I think the picture does it justice. Con Pane is one of my favorite places in Point Loma. This is their turkey cobb sandwich stuffed full of turkey, lettuce, sun-dreid tomatoes, smoked applewood bacon, and gorgonzola cheese on fresh rosemary olive-oil bread. Yum! They also make all of their own pastries and it took everything in me not to purchase one of their delicious pumpkin cakes, cookies, or scones. Safe to say that if I still lived in Point Loma, I'd  weigh 300 pounds. 

Favorite Picture: After indulging in Con Pane, we hung out in the nearby park at Liberty Station and watched airplanes take off right above us. We also played tag, chased birds, and collected some giant pinecones. Donovan was SO excited! I am so, so lucky to have these boys in my life. They just fill my heart with joy. 

Favorite after work activity: Hanging out with this precious bug. She is always such a happy girl. I love seeing her sparkling eyes and bright smile when I come home every day. 

Favorite Purchase: I just can't help myself! How cute will her chubby, little feet look in these?!

Favorite Dinner: Trader Joe's roasted pepper tomato soup with homemade croutons, parmesan, and fresh basil. It took all of 10 minutes to prep and it was SO, so yummy! 

Cheers to a fun week ahead! I can't wait for Halloween! 

baby food

After Donovan had been successfully eating rice cereal for a few weeks I knew it was time to start introducing him to other solid foods. I had heard and read many different explanations for what to introduce first...

green vegetables because they won't eat the veggies if you do the fruits first

fruits because they will take to eating solids quicker and easier

carrots

anything but carrots because carrots have a high possibility of allergens

I was confused. When I inquired about this with Donovan's pediatrician he said it really doesn't matter at all. He said to feed him what he'll eat and that as long as it's not on the no, no list (honey, nuts, cow's milk) then it should all be fine.

The rule I've followed so far is introducing one new solid at a time for a few days at a time to monitor D in case there were any negative reactions. So far, so good.

My lovely sister in law (aka super mom) bought me this book and for the most part I've followed along with what it's taught me. For now I choose to make Donovan's baby food from scratch. Mostly because it's cheaper but also because I think it could be healthier, and I can make a lot all at one time and store and organize it for his daycare days. Here's the process I've been following so far.

Pears: I cook about 6-7 pears at a time

(same process for apples too but I only cok 5 apples at a time)

I peel the skin off. You can leave it on if you buy organic. These were not. Then I use a mellon baller to scoop out the seeds & stem.

I cut the pears into smaller pieces and put them in a pan. I fill the pan with a little bit of water, just enough so that it covers the bottom layer of the fruit. I have no exact measurements on this one. Sometimes I add more water if there's not enough... if there's too much I just strain a bit as it's cooking. I put on the lid, set the burner to medium and cook for about 10 minutes until the fruit is tender, not too mushy.

After 10 minutes I turn the burner off, remove the lid, and let it cool for a bit. Then I ladle small amounts of the cooked fruit into a blender and pulse it until it's a very smooth consistency.

Then I've been pouring the mixture into ice cube trays (a brilliant purchase from my mom) Each cube= 1 oz. When the tray is full I pop it in the freezer and can keep it there until I need it.

My 6 pears filled up 1 1/2 cube trays. I also got these "Take and Toss" containers that my SIL told me about to store the foods when Donovan takes them to daycare. They're just mini tupperware containers that are a great size to use as food storage and a feeding bowl all in one. When I'm organizing his food for the week I just pop 2 or 3 cubes in each container and then they're all set.

I would love to hear what you do or if you have any other advice for making baby food... please share!

Tuesday's Meal

The rest of the week is devoted to all things chicken... I usually plan my meals this way. If I'm using chicken, I'll try to cook several pieces and reinvent them throughout the week.

The first of which may be my very favorite chicken meal ever. California Chicken. At least that's what my mom called it growing up. This was the meal I'd ask for on my birthday, or any other day that entitled me to be the one to decide what made it to the table on a particular evening.

Ingredients:

chicken breasts

bearnaise sauce packet (you add butter and milk to it)

avocado

side dish:

asparagus

olive oil

garlic

salt & pepper

Directions:

For the roasted asparagus I start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees. I simply coat the asparagus in olive oil and a little chopped garlic with a dash of salt and pepper and toss them on a baking sheet into the oven for about 10 minutes or as long as it takes for me to prepare the rest of the meal.

California Chicken:

1. I always pound my chicken breast so they're a little on the thin side. This way they cook faster and at about the same pace.

2. Grill them either on the BBQ or on a grill pan.

3. While they're grilling slice an avocado and put it to the side and begin preparing the bearnaise sauce.

4. I've never made bearnaise sauce from scratch, but the packet kind is so easy to make and I think it tastes great. When it's ready (5 mins) just set it to the side or turn the burner on the lowest setting to keep it warm.

5. Plate the grilled chicken, top with avocado, and pour the bearnaise on top. Set the roasted asparagus on the side.

So quick and super delicious. This one comes highly recommended by the Mr.

Sweet & Savory

Monday's Meal Quick and Easy:

My own version of a cobb salad and yummy bread with strawberries!

Salad Ingredients: (You obviously can use whatever you want... I sort of cleaned out the veggie bin on this one)

spinach leaves

tomato

avocado

green onion

broccoli florets

smoked apple wood bacon crumbled into little pieces

crumbled gorgonzola cheese

& vinaigrette dressing

Directions:

toss them all together and enjoy. Easy peasy.

Now onto the sweet. This was my own creation called, "the strawberries are going bad and this bread is stale... I have an idea."

Ingredients:

Thinly sliced bread ( I use par-baked ciabatta bread from Trader Joe's)

whipped cream cheese

strawberries

honey

Directions:

Before I started the salad I sliced the bread and put it on a baking sheet and covered each slice with cream cheese. Toss them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 5-8 minutes (As long as it takes to make the salad)

When they come out warm and toasty, top with sliced strawberries and drizzle with warm honey.

Such a quick and easy meal... but oh so yummy too!

Sunday Night Meal

Usually on Sundays, if we're not BBQing with family, I like to cook a nice meal for Dustin and I at home. By nice, I mean, one that takes me longer to cook than the usual 20 minute or less meal. This recipe is from my favorite, Giada De Laurentiis. Her recipes are easy to follow, delicious, and make your whole house smell sooo good.

Sunday Meal: penne with sausage, artichokes, and sun dried tomatoes

6 main course servings (Is what it says... maybe we just eat way too much of it, but we usually each have it for dinner and then for lunch the next day so I'd say 4-5 servings)

Ingredients:

1 pound Italian hot sausage (casings removed)

12 ounces of penne pasta

3/4 cup of oil packed sun dried tomatoes

2 (8 oz.) packages of artichoke hearts, thawed

2 large garlic cloves chopped

1 3/4 cup of chicken broth ( I use a little less)

1/2 cup of dry white wine ( I enjoy a glass myself while cooking. Mmmm)

1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, plus a little extra to sprinkle on top

1/3 cup of chopped fresh basil

salt & pepper

Directions:

1. Poor a little of the sun dried tomato oil in a skillet. Cook sausage until browned and break it into tiny pieces while it's cooking. Place in a bowl and set it off to the side.

2. In the same skillet cook the artichokes and garlic until tender. (4 minutes?)

Add the broth, wine, and sun dried tomatoes and bring to a boil. Cook for about 10 minutes until the sauce reduces.

3. Meanwhile bring a large pot of water to boil and cook penne for about 10 minutes.

4. Drain the penne and add it to the skillet. Add the sausage, parmesan cheese, basil, and a bit of salt and pepper.

Your house will be smelling heavenly at this point.

5. Serve up the pasta with a little parmesan sprinkled on top and there you have it!

For an added bonus I like to use our china on Sundays. It never gets used otherwise and it makes an ordinary meal seem more special. I learned this trick from my mother-in-law.

It's Wednesday

Here's what I'm loving this week:

This is my first full week of working since I've become a mommy. It's just a one week conference sort of thing but it's giving me a good idea of what I'm in for next year. Let's just say morning coffee is a necessity!

It's also crazy how fast the evenings fly by. I feel like I hardly have time to enjoy Donovan. So I usually love to cook dinner, but with me trying to soak up all of D's waking minutes when I get home, we haven't been getting around to eating until around 8:00. Anyone else have this figured out? I'm all ears.

Tonight I made a quick and easy recipe that Dustin and I both like. I posted a more detailed version here. Barbecued Chicken Pizza... but the star was the salad. It has, lettuce, half of the BBQ chicken shredded, black beans, corn, diced red onion, shredded mexican cheese, avocado and then I mix BBQ sauce and ranch for the dressing. It's so yummy! Dustin even said tonight, "If there was a 6th love language... it should be food." Ha!

Another recent love of mine is Trader Joe's low calorie lemonade. Have you had it yet? Even better than drinking it by itself, I diced up a watermelon into little cubes, froze them, and then added them into my lemonade like ice cubes. Added bonus.

In a few weeks all of my girls & I are celebrating Kim's bachelorette and are going to do some sort of a poolside/spa day. I can't wait! I did some pretend online shopping for the occasion and here are my loves of the week.

This hat from Forever 21.

A girly cover up from Anthro

This bikini and I'll take the bod that goes with it por favor

And some sandals to finish it off

I am SO grateful for my Mom! I could write a novel about all that she does/has done for me, but for starters, she is graciously hanging out with her grandson all week while Dus and I are both at work. It's so nice not having to worry about Donovan when I'm away. He's in very good hands. She also came over for babysitting duty today with a bag full of goodies from Carter's. Donovan has lots of new clothes to show off on the blog. Stay tuned.

In these pics, he's modeling a little tie onesie that my mom sewed for him. She's sewed me some dresses too and a cute little bag that she blogged about here. I'm the luckiest!

And last but not least, my boys! They make me so happy every single day. Nothing better than coming home to these cuties.

Happy Wednesday everyone! Now go stop by Jamie's blog and share what you're loving today...

A great weekend

This weekend was perfectly relaxing. Dustin was busy though. He worked Junior Golf tournaments both Saturday and Sunday and also coached a baseball game Saturday morning. While he was working on Saturday, Donovan and I went to a beautiful baby shower for one of my dearest friends. She's expecting a little girl next month. I can't wait! The weather was nice and we had a great time hanging out and celebrating...

Saturday afternoon Dustin beat me home. We had a nice evening playing with Donovan. He was tuckered out early... (must've been exhausting listening to all the girl talk at the shower) so we got him ready for bed a little bit early and enjoyed a make shift date night in our family room. We watched The Social Network... I thought it was really good. Interesting enough to keep my eyes open until the end which says a lot these days.

Dustin was off to work again this morning. There was no church this weekend because our entire church (thousands of people) took the day to provide services for countless places throughout the county. It's an amazing thing that our church organizes and I'm so proud of every single person that participated. Our Bible Study group was committed to doing a clean up at Leo Carrillo Ranch. Unfortunately, with Dustin working, and my parents out of town, and no one readily available to sit little D... I sat on my buns this morning instead. I was with them in spirit though.

Donovan was so snuggly all day. It was cloudy and drizzly outside for most of the morning so he and I stayed in our jammies snuggling on the couch and playing in his nursery. Dustin came home this afternoon and took Daddy duty so I could prep some meals for the week.

Tonight I made ricotta and spinach stuffed chicken breasts. Recipe from here. I never follow the recipes exactly but it does give me a good starting off point. I had a lot of things in the fridge that I needed to get rid of... so this was the perfect meal for today.

I also had some blueberries and strawberries that were beginning to over-ripen. So I made this recipe. Now this was to die for. Berries and cream... YUM! Dustin isn't a huge dessert fan but he loved this one as much as I did.

And that's it in a nutshell. I hope you had a lovely weekend, too!

Pregnancy Craving 8 million

Please tell me that I'm not the only pregnant woman that turns into some crazy alter-ego when hunger strikes. Case-in-point: Sunday. Dustin and I took Molls for a long walk along the beach in Carlsbad. The weather was gorgeous and we were having the best time. So good of a time in fact that we decided to walk way farther than we ever have on our typical C-bad walks. And then, the hunger sets in. I began to whine, complain. (You know the drill) My legs turned into 100 pound weights dragging me down, my head started to throb, and I had to go potty... BAD! We had walked way past the downtown area. Just the thought of walking back seemed like the worst trek ever known to man. But all of my doubts disappeared when we happened upon a little craft fair going on at Carlsbad Village Drive because I found God's greatest gift to human creation. Kettle Corn! And, even better I counted up all of the change in my wallet and in the bottom of my purse and I had just the perfect amount to buy the "snack bag." Praise the Lord! The perfect combination of salty and sweet. Who was the divine person that created this snack? My legs instantly felt renewed. No more headache. We were back in business and happily made our way back to the car.

Note to self. From now on do not leave house without packing snacks!

Rainbow Cupcakes

I made these yesterday for a BBQ that we went to with friends. They were easy and I loved the colors! Find the steps to making them for yourself here.

Pregnancy Craving #172

lemon spaghetti

easy and yummy summer recipe

from Giada De Laurentiis

ingredients:

1/2 lb spaghetti

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice (2 lemons)

fresh chopped basil

directions:

cook spaghetti

mix together olive oil, parmesan cheese, and lemon juice

strain pasta and toss with olive oil mixture

toss in chopped basil and mix one more time

serve with a bit of extra parmesan on top.

Enjoy!

.sweet summer time.

Let me start this post with something that's really not so sweet, in my opinion. My summer alarm clock. I remember about a year ago relentlessly searching with Dustin for our first home. Our poor friend Liz took us to more houses that I can count and wrote up around 8 or 9 offers until we finally found the perfect place for us. Everyone has their own set of must-haves in their home search. One of my most prominent must-haves was PEACE and QUIET. After having lived in a very loud apartment complex for the first 2 years of marriage this is something that became more and more important to me. So the many homes that we visited that backed up to major streets or were too close to the freeway were a definite NO for me.

Our house has proven perfect in this area. One of the many reasons I love it. However, having a quiet home with a nature-created amphitheater in our back yard attracts more birds than I ever knew God created. You wouldn't believe it unless you could hear it. Every morning at the first hint of the sun rising, these birds gather together in my peaceful backyard to welcome the new day. It sounds lovely... but when it's summer and I have the opportunity to sleep in... it loses a bit of its luster. Not to mention, it serves as Molly's alarm clock too. It never fails. Right before 5:00 EVERY single morning the birds start singing and Molly begins barking/ crying in their accompaniment. I guess there are worse ways to wake up though, right?

So on to the sweet part of summer. I am LOVING all of the yummy treats in my kitchen right now.

Obsession #1: Insane Smoothie

(I can't wait for my mom to get home from her trip to try this one.)

TJ Vanilla Yogurt, frozen pineapple, shredded coconut, and some organic pineapple/coconut juice. Blend and drink and I feel like I'm on my honeymoon in Kauai again. It's that good.

Obsession #2: Cheap fruit from Frazier's

I went bonkers shopping there. Their prices are unbelievable. There's nothing better than snacking on watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, and cherries. Yum!

Obsession #3: I have been dying for Rice Krispie Treats

Significantly less healthy, but oh, so delicious!

Today's challenge is making sure there is some left for Dustin when he gets home from work.

Have I mentioned yet that I LOVE SUMMER! (thought so)

easiest dinner ever, margherita pizza.

Ingredients:

TJ pizza dough (I LOVE their pizza dough. You can make so many different kinds of pizzas with it and it never fails.)

Marinara Sauce

Mozzarella Cheese

Tomatoes

Basil

Spread out the pizza dough on a greased pan or foil. Pour on some of your marinara sauce and spread it around to the edges of the pizza.

Sprinkle on the cheese, thinly sliced tomatoes, and some chopped basil.

Bake at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the cheese starts to brown and bubble.

Enjoy... even better with a glass of red wine.

We're off the celebrate my Dad's birthday today with lunch in San Clemente. This weather is AMAZING! I'm so glad that we've had the time off to enjoy it.

mini meatloaves

Does the word meatloaf make you gag, just hearing it? It always conjures these images from one of my old school favorite movies, A Very Brady Sequel, where Alice is making the family meatloaf and she keeps scooping out heaps from a jar labeled "lard" to add to her meatloaf mixture. Sick!

But I have a husband that LOVES meatloaf. So, I happened upon this meatloaf recipe that shockingly didn't make me feel queasy. It was super easy and Dustin really liked it.

Ingredients: Ground turkey (1lb.). bbq sauce. ketchup. 1 egg. 1 yellow onion. 2 cloves of garlic. & cooking oats.

Step One: Chop up one yellow onion and sauté for about 2 minutes.
Step Two: I didn't take a picture. Add the onions to a mixture with 1/2 cup of cooking oats, 1/2 cup of bbq sauce, all of the turkey, one egg lightly beaten and 2 cloves of minced garlic. Then mix.

Step Three: Scoop out a handful of the mixture (about a half cup) and mold it into a ball-ish shape. Put it in a muffin tin that's been sprayed. Continue until you're out of turkey mixture.
Step Four: Mix 1/4 cup of ketchup and 1/4 cup of bbq sauce and pour it over the top pf each mini meatloaf.
Step Five: Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.

Enjoy!